Team USA will take home more medals than any other country at the 2012 London Olympics, says a new report by investment bank Goldman Sachs. The U.S. will win a total of 108 medals, including 37 gold medals at the Games, according to forecasts in the Olympics and Economics 2012 Research Report.

China will rank second in the medal table with 33 gold medals, while Great Britain will benefit from the home-field advantage and grab 30 gold medals — a considerable improvement from the 19 it won in the 2008 Games. Other countries that will make it on the top 10 medal table are (in descending order of gold medals): Russia, Australia, France, Germany, South Korea, Italy, and Ukraine.

The top 10 medal-winning countries, according to the report, are some of the world’s most industrialized nations and the economists who worked on the report say there is a correlation between national economies and Olympic performance. “Countries with superior growth environment and higher incomes are expected to win more medals,” explain economists José Ursúa and Kamakshya Trivedi. “So ultimately, it appears that gold does go where growth and the overall growth environment are best.”

The Telegraph, however, warns that the investment firm’s sporting predictions should be viewed with some skepticism. Two years ago, Goldman predicted that Brazil would win the World Cup; in reality, Brazil was knocked out in the quarter-finals.

You are top of the medal table if you have the most Gold medals not total number of medals, just as China was top of the medal table in 2008 despite the USA having more total medals. 101 bronzes do not beat 100 golds.

Why is Goldman Sachs speculating on this? Are they investing money in sports betting now? Another sign of the train wreck that the finance sector has become, but hey, we don't need to regulate them. Too big to fail, indeed.